~~~~~ This is a fictional story. ~~~~~
She opened her door, trying to head out. Then, there stood a young man in pizza shop uniform, holding a letter. “Hey, sis.” “Ohh!! You almost gave me a heart-attack! What’s that?” “From your mother.” “Yeah!!!!!!!” She immediately snapped it from his hand, eye on the letter, but talking to him, “you want to take a seat? I’m going to read it…” “Nah… I have part-time tonight. I just drop you this, coz I know you’ll be excited. Have to go!” “Thanks bro! Love you tons! Bye!” “Bye!”
She closed the door, and started reading…
They were actually no brother and sister. That’s just how they called each other. They just met at the roadside of Tanzania, when she was 12 and he was 14.
“Demn!! What the hell you are doing?” It hurt like hell. He was sleeping peacefully, and then fell off the tree because some squirrels suddenly escaped on to the tree and accidentally fell into his lap.
“Sorry… I was just trying to take a nap under the tree… something ran past me.”
“Are you stupid? Did you try to sleep on a squirrel nest or what?” He was angry, but the girl in front of him looked so innocent, he couldn’t help but gradually softened his voice.
“I’m Zen. Are you lost or something?”
“I’m Sue. I…I…” She suddenly started crying loud non-stopped. He is now worried. He put his shirt on her, pulled her aside to sit down. “Tell me what happened.”
“I… I ran away from home.”
She started telling him, how her father said that she was old enough to get marry, and they needed money for her brother to get a bride. She also told him how she had meeting with a man who was older than his father, and already had 4 wives. Also, she overheard her father telling her mother to find somebody to circumcise her, so that she could get marry…
That night, she cried herself to sleep, while her little brothers and sisters were sleeping soundly around her.
Suddenly, there was a hand over her mouth. It was soft, and smelled like her mother. In the dark, she saw her mother’s eyes, looking right at her. She followed her mother, carefully stepped across her siblings, out of the dark room.
Outside, under the faint moonlight, her mother said to her urgently. “There is no time. You know what will happen to you. Go!! Never come back!!” Her mother pushed a bag to her, and tried to push her away.
Yet she stood there, not moving, looking into her mother’s eyes. Her mother was clearly crying, not wanting her to go. Her eyes suddenly felt hot. She wanted to cry too… But there was no time. Her father might wake up any minute. She hugged her mother as tight as possible. Then she took the bag, and ran!
She didn’t look back, just kept running, running… She didn’t know how far she had gone. In the dark, she had lost directions. Eventually, she stopped, bended down to hear from the ground. She heard nothing. Nobody followed.
Then, she hid herself inside the brushes, and tried to lay down, took a nap…
Suddenly, she heard noises. Somebody singing, and noises of animals. She got up immediately, ran again…
Around noon, she was too tired. She wanted to rest under the tree, and see if there were any food in the bag. Then, a boy suddenly fell down from the tree, in front of her!
“So, what are you planning to do?” Zen asked Sue quietly, after she calmed down.
“I don’t know where to go… I’m scared…”
“You can’t go back!! I know what they’ll do to you!! I saw they did it to my sister too!” She just stared at the ground…
“I heard that if you keep going north, there will be a port. There are ships, leaving here!” She now stared at him, not sure if she could believe this boy, who looked not much older than her.
“You don’t believe me? I’ll take you!! I’ll go with you!!”
“Really??”
“What happens to your family?”
“I’m sure they don’t mind one less mouth to feed!”
Zen laughed happily, as if it was just a game.
Then, they started walking. Together, they crossed hill by hill, fields by fields… When they finished what she had in the bag. Then, they started begging unknown people for foods and water. Sometimes they slept in the wild. Sometimes they slept under somebody’s roofs. One time there was a local lady kind enough to give them each a bucket of water and a bar of soap, with which they took their only shower in days.
They lost counted of how many days they had been walking. Nobody paid attention at them or asked them where they were going. After all, they were just some local kids.
Eventually, there started to be more and more traffic and people. They were probably arriving some town. In fact, there were so many people that they got nervous. Zen started holding hand with Sue. They didn’t want to lose each other. If somebody looked at Sue, Zen would immediately stand in front of Sue, and said “Don’t look at my sister!” Sue felt so thankful that she gained a new brother.
They asked around, and eventually reached a huge port, with numerous terminals, countless docks, piles and piles of huge containers. They were shocked. They had never seen something like that before in their life. Little did they know, they were at Port of Dar es Salaam, the main port of Tanzania, which handles 90% of the whole country’s cargos!
Now what?
They went back to town, half stole half begged for some foods and drinks in the busy market, and then returned to the port, hid inside a berth, to wait for dark.
At night, there were much less people and traffic around. They sneaked into the biggest vessel that they could find, found some dark corners to hide, and slept.
“Zen!” “What?” Zen hated to be waken from his sleep. “Can you hear that? I think the ship is moving.” Indeed, they could hear big noises from the machine room. Of course, they didn’t know those were engine noises.
“Sorry… I want to pee…”
“You are so trouble!”
They had no choice but to wander around the huge vessel, hoping to find a toilet.
They bumped into a big soft belly, in the narrow hallway.
That soft belly pulled Zen up by the collar. Zen was now eyes in eyes with a middle-aged man. Zen was in shock.
“Who the hell are you?”
“aaaa… I’m Zen. This… is my sister, Sue.”
Zen pointed down to a scared young girl.
“What are you doing, kid?”
“aaaa… looking for toilet.”
“Wahaaaaaa!!!” The middle-aged man suddenly broke into big laugh, as if this was the funniest thing he ever heard.
When he finished laughing, he put Zen down, and said proudly, “I’m the Chief mate of this ship, call me John. Now, follow me!!”
When they were done with the toilet, John took them into a room with 2 long tables and a dozen of chairs. This must be their dinner room, Zen thought.
After they sat down, Sue looked so worried like she was about to cry, and whispered, “Sir… I’m sorry… please don’t throw us into the sea.”
“Wahaaaaa!!! What do you think we are? Pirates? We don’t throw anybody into the sea!!” By that time, even another younger guy sitting at the other table also started laughing hard. “Haaaa… You know, you are not the first to sneak into a cargo ship!! Haaaa……”
“Okay. Captain is going to be mad. I’ll talk to him. But you see, we cannot let you two stay here for free!! You have to work!! You — will go help Eric, our oiler and wiper! And you —- will go help our cook! David will be happy to have someone do the dishes and peel the potatoes!! Haaaa……”
And so, two of them got the first job in their lives.
“John…. Sir, where are we going?”
“Castello! You know where it is? Haaaa… of course not. It’s in Spain. It’ll take 22 days.”
“22 days??” Zen and Sue both opened their eyes wide at the same time.
“You are in luck, you know? Some other ships take 40 or even 70 days. This is the shortest!”
“Now… I have to think where to put you two when we land… Of course you can’t speak Spanish…” They now both shaked their heads hard. “I’ll see…”
“Sir, you can speak Spanish?”
“Nah, just some English. You know, we used to be a British colony? I learnt some English from school. You know what is colony?” Again, they both shaked their heads. “Haaaa… Whatever.”
And so, they both worked all day and shared one of the empty cabins at night. In fact, they had been so busy that they hardly noticed that they were about to arrive Port of Castello.
“Sue, I think it’s fun to be a sailor.”
“What??”
“I like the machine room. I had never seen so many machines in my life, and they all have different purposes. Eric taught me a lot!”
Sue felt okay to work in the kitchen, but she certainly did not want to stay there forever. She couldn’t wait to get out of this ship!
When they landed, a well-dressed man and two women were already standing at the dock waiting for them. Of course, the Captain had called the immigration. They were obligated to. One of the women was an African like them. She was their translator.
And so, their life on the cargo ship had ended. Now, they started their life in Spain!
They were really in luck. As they were minors, they were not placed in a refugee camp, but a foster home instead. In fact, comparing to their homes in Tanzania, the foster home was much more modern and well-equipped. It was supported by some NGO. They had to share room with many kids, but they each had their own bed and locker. They also could take shower and eat all they want. More importantly, they could go to school!
Years later, Sue becomes a translator, working for an NGO, while Zen is studying in community college to be a technician. It was also that NGO, which helped Sue get in touch with her mother in Tanzania. They both feel grateful for their new life.
Whenever Sue sees some news about Tanzania, she still wonders, if she had stayed in Tanzania, what kind of life she would be leading now…
~~~~~ The End ~~~~~